6. Aria: "The Head of Antoinette" (from "The Memoirs of Antonina" Preview Concert)
Live performance of the aria "The Head of Antoinette", from the forthcoming opera "The Memoirs of Antonina" by composer/librettist Mary Bichner. Performed by Junhan Choi (Jacques Hébert), Tim Ribchester (music director), and Emma Terrell (assistant music director), on September 2nd, 2018 at the Central Square Theater of Cambridge, MA. Video by Allthingsharmony/Brandon Johnson (http://www.allthingsharmony.com).
*ABOUT THE OPERA*
"The Memoirs of Antonina" is a new/in-progress three-act opera by composer/librettist Mary Bichner, inspired by Marie Antoinette of France. Taking its name from a slanderous 18th-century tract about the queen’s rumored exploits and indiscretions, "The Memoirs of Antonina" focuses on the final years of Marie Antoinette’s life, and pits two versions of the queen (performed by two different singers) against one another: the imagined breezy libertine derided by revolutionary pamphleteers, and the distraught historical figure determined to reclaim her kingdom and her reputation. For more information, please visit: http://www.marybichner.com/memoirsofantonina
*SONG DESCRIPTION*
In the dead of night, the revolutionary Jacques Hébert holds a secret meeting with the Committee of Public Safety. In his speech, he attempts to convince the Committee to decide the verdict and sentence of Marie Antoinette's upcoming trial before it occurs, and insists that death by guillotine is the only proper punishment for her. This aria is inspired by a quote attributed to Hébert from the historical version of this meeting, in which his stated: "I have promised the head of Antoinette. I will go and cut it off myself if there is any delay in giving it to me. I have promised it on your behalf to the sans-culottes who are asking for it, and without whom you will cease to be."
*LYRICS*
(available via captions above)
